What the Hell Is Wrong With the Heat? Miami on the Verge of Elimination After Beatdown

During the Heat's 107-86 loss to San Antonio last night, my TV kept cutting out. I thought it might be the storms in the area; then I realized it was ABC hitting the dump button every time a fan cursed. It happened a lot. I'm surprised it didn't happen more.

The Heat finds itself on the brink of losing the crown as the team heads to San Antonio for an elimination game five Sunday night. What once looked like it would be a grind-it-out tough series has become a revenge for 2013 tour for the Spurs. If the Heat can't pull the emergency brake on this season, its reign as the NBA champ is 48 minutes from crashing into a wall.

To give you an idea of how this one went, LeBron James scored 19 points in the third quarter, but the Heat was outscored by five. That's almost impossible to do. Plainly put, the San Antonio Spurs have been the Miami Heat's daddy in the past two games, so much so that before the game this Sunday, the players should present the Spurs with Father's Day gifts. You always knew at some point the Heat would end a season without a parade, but nobody could expect it to happen this way. They have been flat-out dominated.

Of all the things that went wrong on a night when most things went wrong, Dwyane Wade was the worst of those things that went sideways. Wade shot 1-10 for just four points through three quarters, finished 3-13 for ten points, and by the time he hit a few shots in the fourth quarter, it was far too late to matter.

Thursday night was arguably Wade's worst game in a Heat uniform, and it came at the worst possible moment in the season. It was tough to watch. It's clear Wade is fighting the fact that he must reinvent his game at this point in his career. Numerous times in last night's game you could tell his mind was fighting what his body was telling him, and he only realized it once he was in midair. Dwyane Wade is arguably the greatest athlete in the history of South Florida sports and will always be your boy. But it's just not happening for him right now.

So the Miami Heat has used up all its losses. Best-case scenario for this season is now a game seven in San Antonio a week from today. For that to happen, the Heat would have to pull off an all-time comeback, one that would rival the Boston Red Sox rally against the New York Yankees in 2004. Three straight wins against a team of basketball robots would be basically all the Miami Heat has yet to do for you in the past four years.